Favre takes blame for leaving Packers in 'limbo'

Jun. 13, 2013

Loading Photo Galleries ...

Written by

Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre addresses the media during his March 6, 2008, retirement press conference at Lambeau Field. "At that time and day that I talked to Mike McCarthy I didn’t want to play," Favre says now. / File/Gannett Wisconsin Media

More

ADVERTISEMENT

In a radio interview Thursday, Brett Favre went into a little more detail in accepting his share of the blame for his contentious divorce from the Packers.

Last weekend Favre told a radio station in Buffalo that he deserved some blame for the acrimonious parting and today told Sirius XM NFL radio part of the reason why: that his yearly pondering of retirement put the team in a difficult position.

“They wanted to go in a different direction and quite frankly I had no problems with that,” Favre said of his departure in 2008. “I still felt like I could play. I left them in limbo, as we all know, kinda ‘yeah,’ ‘no.’ Just, I didn’t want to make a decision until I got right up to training camp and that’s probably where I was at fault. I was also at fault for saying, ‘I’m retiring,’ because at that time and day that I talked to Mike McCarthy I didn’t want to play.”

Favre suggested that his decision on whether to retire was especially difficult because he considered 2007 his best season.

“I understood that they had a young quarterback who had tremendous potential, that they had to find out what he could do,” Favre said of Aaron Rodgers. “ And, quite frankly, I had probably my best year in 16 years that past season and there’s two ways to look at that. If you’re in the organization and you’re making decisions you got to feel like, ‘OK, he had a great year, but can he really duplicate that again at this age? Probably not. He’s probably maxed out.’ That’s kind of what I would have been thinking. Now, obviously my side of it is I think I still can play.”

Favre said that his relationship with Rodgers was much better than reports he’s seen about the two not being friendly during their time together. For example, he said he and Rodgers used to study game video together occasionally after regular working hours.

“There were no problems between Aaron and I,” Favre said. “I had no problem with him becoming the next quarterback for the Packers. It was bound to happen at some point. I have no problems with the success that he's had. In fact, I'm proud of him. I was well aware of the media making a big deal out of it. I mean, I'm not going to sit there and fight it all the time. I knew it wasn't true. Aaron knew it wasn't true. Did I talk to him all the time? No. Do I talk to other guys all the time? No. But he knows how I feel about him and he knows how I feel about his career up to this point.”

The obvious thawing between Favre and the organization in the last year or so suggests that the day the team retires his number is not far off. Favre said he didn’t know he’ll formally return to the team for the first time since his ’08 trade.

“I think both sides agree that there is no sense in rushing anything just for the public or whatever,” he said. “I don’t know what the response will be from the fans. I think there’s a great deal of fans that respect the way I played and what I did for that organization. I know I’m very proud of what I left behind there.”